Sit a Olympus OM series camera next to a Leica M series camera and you might feel a touch differently. Sit a Olympus XA next to Nikon F2 and you’ll see what people mean when they say rangefinders are smaller than SLR cameras. Nikon F2, Leica M-A, Olypmus XA-4 (not technically an RF, but the same size as the XA which is) and an Olympus OM-2n Size, form factor and mechanics That being said, there are a few well defined attributes that come along with the rangefinder system that on face value might or might not appeal. Even with a theoretically ideal on-paper specification of a rangefinder for a given photographer, it would still be impossible to determine if they’re going to like one of these cameras in practice without them trying one first hand. As such, it’s very hard to divide all there is to talk about specifically into lists of pros and cons. The pros and cons of the rangefinder camera concept?Īs I’ve alluded to, pretty much everything there is to say about the user experience of a rangefinder cameras is subjective. That being said, as mentioned, assuming the system is well calibrated, it does make for a very viable system for attaining perfectly accurate focus. The short version is that because you’re not focusing by looking directly through the lens, any flaws or miscalibration within the lens and/or rangefinder can cause missed focus. I recently published a post by Alan Starkie of Cameraworks-uk who talks in more detail about the inherent flaws in the rangefinder concept and how it’s fraught with potential for failure. I say theoretically as the concept of the rangefinder camera is not without its flaws. If anything, shooting a rangefinder is probably closer in experience to shooting a compact with an offset optical viewfinder but with the added benefit of a theoretically perfect and direct focus confirmation in the viewfinder. For now I mention them to initially highlight just how different the user experience these cameras offer to SLR cameras. I shall come back to all this “offset viewfinder”, “patch” and “frame line” stuff later in the post. By changing the focus on the lens the mechanism in the rangefinder allows the user to line up the two images in the viewfinder and as such effectively triangulate the subject distance and therefore attain correct focus. The rangefinder patch overlays a second image projected from a second smaller rangefinder window on the front of the camera. The viewfinder is offset and therefore doesn’t allow a view through the lens itself, but instead displays frame lines that correspond to the lens attached to the camera with the rangefinder patch in the centre. The short version is that rangefinders are manual focus cameras that are focused through the use of a mechanical coupling between the lens and camera body, which via the rangefinder mechanism displays a focusing aid known as the “rangefinder patch” in the viewfinder. The basic concept of the Rangefinder Camera As such, I thought I might unpick some of this with a little guide to the rangefinder camera. But there are good reasons why both sets of opinions exist. Of course, there’s no right and wrong here, it’s all subjective and comes down to people’s simple preferences. Yet for those who don’t get on with them, they can distract from the process of photography and feel unnecessarily difficult and indeed limiting in use. For many photographers rangefinder cameras are some of the most simple, easy to use, unimposing and inconspicuous cameras available.
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